SWAT Ed: Fox & Bull (Nothing Special 8)

“Everything is going to be fine,” Fox said quietly, staring at the lone motion sensor on his phone screen. There was only one. “Free, are you there?”

“Always,” Free answered. “You have company, Fox. I can’t believe they came back.”

“Me either.”

“Don’t they know who they’re fucking with?”

Obviously not.

“Everyone just stay at the table, okay, like nothing is happening,” Fox said to the people he’d come to care about very much. He spoke as if they were still just saying good night, his voice relaxed, hoping to calm their panic. “I’m gonna have the lights turned off now so that I can get up without being seen. But stay calm and quiet. It’s just me doing it, okay?”

“Oh my god.” Amelia’s breathing accelerated as she clutched Walker tighter.

“Free, kill the lights downstairs only.”

“Copy.”

Fox reached his hand out to Bull and linked their fingers. He met his strong gaze and saw nothing reflected back at him but trust and respect. “Keep them here and keep them calm. I’ll be right back.”

“Be careful,” Bull said roughly, rubbing the pad of his thumb along Fox’s wrist just as they were plunged into absolute darkness.

Amelia’s yelp was cut off by Walker’s quiet “shh.”

Once covered in the security of blackness, Fox bolted from his seat, his chair not screeching across the floor, his footsteps as silent as a cheetah’s. He made it to the living room window and barely inched one side of the drapes to the side. “Free, I only got one activating the sensors, can you confirm?”

“The bloody hell?” Free huffed in his ear. “The sensor by the broken fence shows the object is stationary.”

“Not moving at all?”

“Negative.”

Fox pulled his Smith & Wesson from the small of his back. Something wasn’t right. The last time they’d come onto the property, there’d been three of them, and they’d moved quickly towards the house. Was it Newt? Was he planning something big? Or planting something big, like an explosive?

“I don’t like this,” Free said. “I’m only registering one bogey, and it’s not moving.”

“Kill the lights on the front of the property. If he’s frozen and can’t decide what to do… I’m gonna decide for him.”

“Fox. You have no backup. I can’t see what’s out there waiting for you.”

“I’ve got no time to argue, Freeman,” Fox snarled.

“Just let me get Steele in here.”

“Free. Kill the fuckin’ lights.”

“I am going to get my ass handed to me by my own damn boyfriend.” Fox heard Free sigh, just before the property went dark and silent. “Once you’ve gone a hundred feet, I’ll lose visual of you on the porch camera, so hurry up,” Free gritted out.

“Ten-four,” Fox muttered, then slipped out of the front door, crouching as he pulled it closed behind him. For a split second, fear gripped him around his throat and attempted to choke him. He’d never been afraid in his life, but for some reason, when it came to Bull, Pops, Amelia, Rid, fuck, even Dale’s annoying ass, Fox’s emotions were escalated. This was personal now.

Fox pointed his weapon down and moved fast down the edging of the bushes lining the driveway, staying crouched low.

“You are out of my sight.”

“Ten-four. Just tells me if he moves.”

“Roger that,” Free whispered.

He was going to owe Free big-time for all of his help while he was out there. Even though they were brothers and their duty to help each other extended far beyond the requirements of their badges, it was still a lot for him to maintain his own job and help Fox on his personal mission.

Fox paused a few feet before the broken fence and listened. He didn’t hear any voices or footsteps; instead, he heard something that sounded like hammering. What the fuck? “Stand by.”

“Copy.”

Frowning, he inched through the dense foliage with both hands around the butt of his chrome Wesson, his finger hovering close to the trigger. He caught a flash of light in the pitch-blackness and realized the person was stooped low, using their cell phone screen for light. An old beat-up Toyota was idling a few feet away on the road, and there were people inside, but it was too dark for him to make out who it was. While the hooded man had his back to him, digging at something in the ground, Fox eased up behind him, the trespasser never sensing the predator at his back until it was too late.

Fox pressed the barrel against the man’s hood, causing him to freeze in panic, his cell phone falling facedown in the dirt. The guy’s shoulders rose and fell rapidly, his body going into alarm mode as Fox tightened his grip and pressed the muzzle in deeper.

Sniffling started. “Oh god.”

“You ready to meet him?” Fox said in a voice that set off an avalanche of uncontrollable shivers in the man on his knees in front of him.